photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Stevenson Hall at Sonoma State University.

With an almost $24 million dollar deficit, Sonoma State University announced widespread budget cuts Wednesday.

Students and staff are still coming to terms with the move.

Marissa Mnich's office had the atmosphere of a funeral home the day after news of the devastating cuts to SSU's budget.

"We found out with the email just like everyone else," Mnich said. "No warning before that."

Mnich is a geology professor and it appears, the last-ever chair of the school's geology department.

"I don't think people realize how much of a community we're losing," Mnich said. "Like we're all sitting in here lamenting right now, we've got alumni, students, me; because we are really tight knit and just the loss of that community has been really hard."

According to the university's administration, the geology, art history, economics, women and gender studies, theater/dance, and philosophy departments will all be shut down.

It's part of a $23.9 million cut to SSU's budget for the next school year.

Kelsey Dowdall, a recent graduate, and Mnich respectively, noted the unique success and real world experience SSU's Geology program provides to students.

"It's kind of shocking that this department's known like nationwide, worldwide for this specific program," Dowdall said.

"I got my undergrad degree from an Ivy League school and I think students in this department get a better education," Mnich said. "I might be biased in saying that, but it's just something special."

Dowdall said the cuts feel needlessly arbitrary. That's an opinion echoed by the president of Sonoma State's faculty union.

"The person who came in probably doesn't even know it because they don't understand what this means to geology," Dowdall said.

With the deep cuts to the SSU's academic programs, in the future students like Jackson Kaiser, a senior in the Geology department, may well have no where to go.

"I'm an older student coming back, I have a lot of life responsibilities and proximity and other factors meant that this was my option," Kaiser said. "And as far as I can tell, there's a direct pipeline between SSU Geology and all of the geologic consulting companies around here."

Another common concern being voiced by faculty and elected officials like Assembly members Chris Rogers and Damon Connolly is the loss to Sonoma County's, and the North Bay's local residents and workforce.

Closing six departments, and eliminating over a dozen degree programs is likely to close off pathways for students like Kaiser, from continuing their education and filling needed roles in the local economy.

"I also thought it was strange that the email states that this is about anticipating the needs of future students and creating career ready students for the workforce in California," Kaiser remarked. "So how is [the budget cut] in line with creating career ready people for California?

The academic cuts include four management positions, 12 staff jobs, and over 40 faculty positions at Sonoma State, as well as SSU's entire NCAA collegiate athletics department.